Summit Communications: Could you point
out some important dates related to the
course that brought you to the position
of Governor of the Central Bank?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: I was born in
August 1953 in the province of Katanga.
My zodiac sign is the Leo, which stands
for "temper of a fighter". Surprisingly,
I was appointed to the position of governor
on August 08, 1997. I admit that I was born
under a good star because it occurred in
August as well. My parents emphasized on
my studies a lot and sent me to an International
School in Geneva where I got the opportunity
to study with pupils of high ranking persons
in political, royal and imperial environment;
this helped me to become open-minded. Furthermore,
I went to the USA to keep on my studies
in nuclear sciences. I graduated from mechanics,
and afterwards I started working in an Aluminium
Industry where I got a working accident
which obliged me to leave the ALUSUISSE
company in order to resume to study, and
obtained an MBA degree in finance. This
degree helped me to get a good career at
the CITIBANK for 17 years as General Manager
then finally the position of the Government
of the bank was offered to me.

Summit Communications: Who are the mentors
that inspired you in your responsibility
to adjust financially the Congo considering
the difficult post-conflict environment?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: First of all,
my colleagues prepared me to this current
position during my training at the CITIBANK.
Repeatedly, I occupied many positions where
I was the personnel manager, Commercial
manager and marketing manager as well. They
motivated me to apply for the position of
Governor of the Central Bank. Obviously,
close friends of the late President Laurent
Kabila emphasized on my file and I admit
that we faced that challenge. Altogether
it was necessary to observe the difference
between the period preceding the arrival
of President Laurent-Désiré
Kabila and the accession of his son Joseph
in considering that he inhered the prospects
of this great Congo: it is prosperous and
respected worldwide. From abroad, I was
sponsored by Mr. Alfons Verplaetse who's
the governor of the National Bank of Belgium.
When I first met him he gave me a good piece
of advice: go to Washington in order to
speak with the World Bank and IMF chairmen
in order to get their sponsors. At the offices
of IMF, I met Mr. Allassane Ouattara who
got acquainted of me through an intermediary
person, when he was the Prime minister of
Ivory Coast. Formerly, the Republic of Zaire
had its regional head office in Abidjan,
and the chairman of the Citibank has spoken
a lot on behalf of me to Mr. Ouattara. The
moment I met him, he promised me to write
to partners, requesting them to support
the Congo. I then encountered Mr. Madago
who's the World Bank representative for
Africa who I already met in Kinshasa before
my appointment as Governor. After describing
him the support I received from IMF, he
agreed to back me up.

Summit Communications: You are considered
as "the father of the unified Congolese
Franc". Could you remind us the great
path made to create the Congolese Franc?

Mr. Jean-Clause Masangu: It was the core
mission that the President Laurent-Désiré
Kabila has handed to the Central Bank. Actually,
the former government rushed me to establish
a hard currency within the first three months
of its mandate, because the government promised
to the population. However, I was assisted
by experts who took part to the ancient
monetary reforms of DRC and foreign managers
who worked with the experts of the World
Bank We should draw lessons of the past
in order to avoid mistakes and promote positive
aspects. Besides, as time lacked, we went
to contact the President in explaining him
that the period of three months was very
short, and the operation is not as simple
as exchange operation like from "Zaire
currency to Congolese Franc"; but it
needs a great operation rather. Noting that
formerly we had several monetary frameworks,
several exchange rate varying from one province
to another. From then on, we have been deeply
inspired from the preparation of the unique
currency: the Euro. At first, we were using
the dollar currency in order to harmonize
the monetary framework. We planned to launch
the "Congolese Franc" on June
30 :the independence's day because the date
stayed worthwhile even for those who left
the country before the accession of the
new regime. Definitely, June 30 1998 the
Congolese Franc was launched with the incredible
media coverage. The bank notes printed aimed
at gathering the Congolese nation around
some cultural aspects, like crafts, or fauna,
and not just individuals (except for the
note of 1FC, which represented Patrice Lumumba).
The slogan proclaimed: a unique currency
for unified people. That's how the Congolese
franc was founded and has been accepted.

Summit Communications: The Congolese
Franc is consolidating itself and coming
back in force since some weeks: the rate
shifted from 500 to 400 Congolese Francs
for one Dollar. What is your vision for
the stability of Congolese Franc now and
in the future?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: The vision is
still the same. In the very beginning we
had to establish a hard currency and then
a stable one. The currency may be either
hard or soft; the stability of the currency
remained the most important issue in 1998.
When we started it was hard because the
parity was 75FC for 1 Dollar. We had enough
reserves, but when the war was intensified
we started having problems on the monetary
level. At that moment, we experienced what
we called "the second phase of Congolese
Franc". However, the first measure
to be taken by the President Joseph Kabila
since January 2001, has been to recognize
the concomitant circulation of foreign currencies
and the Congolese Franc in order to allow
companies in paying and billing in foreign
currency without problems The second measure,
the most important, was to outpace an administered
and set exchange regime to a free and floating
exchange regime by May 2001. During that
period, we noticed a strong 80% devaluation;
the rate deceased from 50 FC to 313 FC for
a Dollar while the street rate added up
to 350 FC for 1 Dollar. Likewise, the street
rate rose quickly in catching up the official
rate, the year 2001 ended with the rate
of 311 FC. Afterwards, from 2002 to 2004,
we experienced a stability period where
the Franc got 15% depreciation per year
within 4 years while the preceding decades,
the Congolese Franc depreciated averagely
on 75% per year, which makes a great difference.
This period of stability has been interrupted
early of 2005; we ended the year with the
rate of 444 FC for 1 Dollar, before decreasing
down to 515 FC for 1 Dollar on April 10,
2005 and rose up to 415 FC in early May.
Such important variations as such are not
appreciated neither by Businessmen, the
government, nor the World Bank. We admit
that we are entering afresh in the period
of stability with regards to consolidation
of the Franc since April and budgetary,
monetary and fiscal measures, which were
taken jointly between the World Bank, the
ministries of Finance and Budget. This discipline
of stability will permit to catch back the
growth period that we experienced from 2001
to 2004. Even though the rate of growth
was negative, anyhow we moved from 3.5%
in 2002, 5.7% in 2003; and 6.8% in 2004.
In the end of the year 2005, we expect to
gain back 6% growth. It is interesting to
compare this rate to the country's demographic
growth which has added up to 3%. Therefore,
after many years of the destruction of our
economy, we started to fight against poverty
and precariousness because currently income
per capita rose, though it is still insufficient:
we need to get the growth rate of more than
10% and we can reach that level within ten
years. If we neglect to adjust the situation
we would have to spend more than fifty years
to reach the lifestyle of the independence
period on June 30, 1960. That's the challenge
to face, which I admit will be achieved
only with the support of the international
patriots and institutions. We possess human
and material capacities. Rebuilding the
infrastructures would help to get that quick
growth back and develop it in the future.

Summit Communications: You stated during
a speech held in April 1998, that "
we cannot have great nation without setting
a strong, respectable and respected Central
Bank". What is the mission of the Central
as it is nowadays and what are the main
values which can make it a respectable Central
Bank?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: First of all the
Central Bank must be creditable in order
to be respectable, in so much the government
and the Central bank give their opinion
of a project and the Central Bank gives
an opinion, the government will materialize
it on the ground. That shows the credibility.
The two first responsibilities of the Central
Bank namely performing the monetary reform
as well as backing up our efforts by foreign
partners (The World Bank, the IMF) were
crowned successfully and finally brought
a great credibility. Furthermore, we are
proposing reliable statistics in the reasonable
deadline and we are trying to elaborate
a law framing the independence of the Central
Bank, and try to get it adopted by the Parliament.
Currently, the targeted independence and
reliability are to be deserved in continuing
to make good results.

Summit Communications: How does the
Central Bank get along with the institutions
of Bretton-Woods, and how does it plan to
improve this collaboration with foreign
partners and others donors?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: These institutions
support our own efforts despite the current
natural resources of the DRC, we need the
foreign financial support. The very day
that the DRC is going to get an increasing
and sustained economy, the role of these
institutions will change and they will intervene
less than ever. Reliable relations that
we have with our partners such as the World
Bank and the IMF rely on quality and quantity
performance criterias. Therefore, the presence
of these institutions in the DRC offer a
non-neglecting impact on several companies
willing to invest. We, Congolese, can live
up expectations of foreign investors but
these avis may sometimes have a more important
impact whenever a third entity expresses
ideas on our behalf, we rely deeply on it.

Summit Communications: You mentioned
previously the importance in having a strategy
so that this fragile environment may have
a framework that will consensually regulate
everybody. What are the impressive facts
of these strategies in which you can rely
on to run the Central Bank?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: The Central Bank
has published a 2004 strategy project which
contains the facing problems of the Central
bank namely in the banking sector and generally
in the financial sector. The stabilization
of the macro-economy framework is the first
issue to deal with. Furthermore, a legal
framework aims to regulate Banking operations
so that commercial banks can encourage the
Congolese economy and companies set up in
the DRC to be productive and profitable.
Currently, we use cash foreign currencies
as the payment term to the detriment of
other currencies. The banking sector must
be modernized in order to reach the major
transaction realizations in the short reasonably
delay. We have, nowadays, ten banks which
are insufficient regarding the considerable
geographical dimension of a country like
ours. The informal financial sector, such
as microfinance, small institutions and
savings corporations, must be enlisted and
supervised, according to the use of the
simple accounting and fiscal rules. The
most organized banking system on the country
will allow to benefit from the technology
advancement in the sector, which will set
up in the future automatic bank note distributors.
We conduct our strategy in the banking sector
with other African central banks, peculiarly,
those who are SADEC's states members. For
instance, we are participating in the Project
of Normalisation and Standardization of
payment terms within the Southern African
region and the Congo will undoubtedly profit
from all this project.

Summit Communications: You mentioned
that the Congo is extremely dominated by
the use of the American currency. How can
it prevent the regulating role of the Central
Bank?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: Proportionally,
if our own currency is less used than the
foreign currencies , the Central Bank has
not sufficient possibilities to set up a
credible and sustained monetary policy.
We need to change it . If the Congolese
economy is dominated by the Dollar due to
the period of hyper inflations that the
country experienced with the four figures
rate, then the population intended their
money in order to get refuge in the more
stable currency. Moreover, we would revise
regulation texts not to impose new laws
but give the possibilities to people to
choose which currency to use. Step by step,
they'll consider to use the national currency
and at the moment of the promulgation of
a exclusivity of new laws of its circulation
throughout the country, it will facilitate
to them to comply on the aforesaid law easily.
In order to reach that level, it requires
creating a currency exchange framework so
that we can recuperate the national currency,
which will take ages. For example, in order
to reduce the use of the dollar within the
economy, we impose to the foreign companies
to make their accounting records, using
the national currency, which will actually
permit to the Central Bank to control the
process of implementation of its monetary
policy.

Summit Communications: Recently, you
underlined the importance of the payment
and credit terms as sources of development.
Nowadays, the rate of credit still remains
insufficient. How do you estimate the impact
of the banking sector in the advancement
of the DRC's economy?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: At first, a country
must rely on its resources so that it can
be developed. Actually, resources from abroad
such as aid and assistance are fleeting.
Therefore, it is compulsory to introduce
internal savings, which must be picked by
financial institutions that are present
in Congo, which is not the case nowadays.
The monetary mass in Congolese Francs adds
up to 120 billion $ while 100 billion dollars
are used out of the banking system and only
20 billion Congolese Francs are injected
into the banking circulation. Therefore,
it is necessary to raise savings, which
implies developing micro- financial institutions
and credit collective ownership. We have
noticed that the savings were existing even
during the hyper inflation period even though
it was in insufficient quantity at the moment
and the place that is needed. Our challenge
is to establish a solid banking system.
However, the Central Bank must intervene
in the preservative manner, and not after
winding up of a bank that is bankrupted.
We are bound to detect negative signals
in order to allow commercial banks to remain
viable and solid. Actually, you cannot reach
the development without credit because it
permits a long term investment and not only
with ownership capital, which is fleeting.
Anyhow, we are satisfied about the situation
that an important deposit of foreign and
national currencies still exists. A significant
increase of the volume of credits is noticeable.
For instance, the Trust Merchant Bank, which
is the first bank entirely Congolese, to
be created a few months ago in Lubumbashi,
which specializes in micro finance and in
small-scale credit.

Summit Communications: The DRC is too
often associated with corruption and money
laundering, which might eventually block
potential investors. What are the methods
used by the Central Bank to fight these
issues and what efforts do you perform in
reinforcing the good governance and the
transparency?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: We elaborated
a law on July 19, 2004, which consists of
two parts: the first one goes against laundring
money and the second one fights the financing
of terrorism.We are bound to keep on this
thrive thanks to the creation of the National
Inquiring Financial Cell as well as other
committees of struggle against laundring.
These structures depend on the ministries
of Justice and Finance. Therefore, we must
also join an alliance of sub-regional struggle
against money laundring and financing terrorism.
Presently, regulations are ready but we
have to press on examining, adopting and
publishing them. It is essential that the
Central Bank may know its client because
it is a security pledge. Moreover, this
arrangement is already settled in all the
countries which deal with it. Therefore,
our corresponding commercial banks abroad
would decide to avoid to cooperate with
Congo if the profiles of certain of our
clients are put at doubt. From then on,
we have to take the bull by the horns and
define a legal framework, which we already
did. It's well-know that Congo is a country
with abounding diamond and gold that are
easily transportable. Nowadays, it becomes
easy to notice the cash laundering operations
instead of precious stones traffics. Unfortunately,
the certificate of Kimberley for the diamond
sector allows to fight against the fraud.
In terms of transparency, the Central Bank
has never been so much audited than for
the last five years. That is to say that
the transparency is compulsory, which will
bring confidence and credibility. The transparency
is also indulged to commercial banks, where
we require both internal and external auditing.

Summit Communications: According to
the President Joseph Kabila's point of view,
the USA is present in Congo, but not as
much as needed. What are the needs that
Congo requests as support from the USA?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: Obviously, the
presence of the USA could have been more
noticed in the financial level but at first,
they were concentrated on the geopolitical
level. What can we offer to the American
investors at the moment? We have an important
mining sector, an oil sector which requires
to be developed and a forestry sector, which
is the most important in the world. Apart
from that, we have set up an investment
code which allows Congo to be competitive.
Furthermore, there is the "single office"
(Guichet Unique) set up by the National
Agency for the Promotion of Investments
(ANAPI), allowing those who would like to
invest in Congo to reveive quick information
and necessary authorizations. Of course,
we understood that is just depends on us
to sell ourselves well.

Summit Communications: According to
your point of view, what are the most adapted
methods to set up in order to reinforce
the collaboration with the USA?

Mr. Jean-Claude Masangu: It is a matter
of financial techniques, investment and
capitalisation. Actually, we have to put
more dynamics into our approach. For example,
we appointed another chairman for the FEC,
the federation of companies of Congo, who
brought a new breath in the way of working.
It is a matter of image. The President of
the Republic and other personalities emphasized
what is happing in Congo. We shifted from
a post-conflict situation towards a burst
of a new democracy. In addition, this peace
process should be sustained so that we can
attract foreign investors. Peace and democratic
process are both conditions of stability.
On the economical level, great progress
has been made in a very short time; for
five years we moved from three figures to
two, regarding the inflation. The economical
growth was in deficit from 1990 to 2001,
but nowadays, we experienced a positive
rise. The national currency works according
to the floating regime and foreign currencies
circulation. The achievement of which I
am proud of is the setting of monetary stability
around the reunified Congolese Francs, as
well the possibility to invest in Congolese
Francs.